At the PODIM 2014 conference, Peter Ribarič, co-founder and CEO of the Silicon Gardens Fund, announced the new fund for the first time.
 
Today, the creation of the Slovenian angel fund Silicon Gardens Fund had been officially announced by well-known Slovenian entrepreneurs from the society Silicon Gardens. The fund is planning to invest into five to ten start-up companies, while the amount of individual investments will span from 20 to 40 thousand euros in exchange for a 5 to 15 percent equity interest. Even a few much esteemed investors from USA put funds into the smaller seed venture capital fund, the first of its kind in the CEE region.
 
Silicon Gardens Fund is meant to ensure seed capital to globally focused Slovenian and regional (CEE) start-ups. It wishes to give support for growth and international breakthrough to founders of start-up companies, starting at the earliest steps when they are still searching for the final product form, market and profitable business model. Since the main fund investors are young and successful entrepreneurs themselves, they will offer their clients so called “smart money” and help them with their own experience, knowledge and active mentorship, as well as try to open various doors at home and abroad through a network of their own acquaintances.   
 
In exchange for the invested seed funds – from 20 to 40 thousand euros in the start-up’s first year of business – the fund will become a 5 to 15 percent owner of the company. The main goal of investors is helping research the international market, evaluating the idea and developing the product as well as preparing for the next round of financing. “The fund, which has already invested into two start-up projects, will primarily focus on the field of internet and mobile technologies, with emphasis on electronic business in the B2C segment (business-to-community) and cloud software solutions or SaaS in the segment of B2B (business-to-business),” Peter Ribarič, one of the fund investors, entrepreneur and fund manager, explained for the portal startaj.si. Alongside Ribarič, other domestic fund investors are Jugoslav Petkovič, Andraž Tori, Boštjan Spetič, Gregor Rebolj, Borut Rismal and others. They are also supported by successful entrepreneurs from USA such as Fred Wilson, Brad Feld, Jerry Colonna and Paul Vidich.
 
A detailed list of investors, information about the fund and instructions for making the first contact with investors can be found here.